Deck 14: Civilization in Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Orthodox Europe

Question 1

Which of the following is seen as a direct continuation of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire?

A) Frankish Empire
B) Ottoman Empire
C) Byzantine Empire
D) Abbasid Empire

Answer 1

Byzantine Empire

Question 2

The Byzantine Empire lasted from

A) 500 to 1450.
B) 200 to 1200.
C) 300 to 1700.
D) 700 to 1650.

Answer 2

500 to 1450.

Question 3

Which of the following was the capital of the Byzantine Empire?

A) Venice
B) Rome
C) Constantinople
D) Athens

Answer 3

Constantinople

Question 4

What was the main religion of the Byzantine Empire?

A) Islam
B) Judaism
C) Hinduism
D) Christianity

Question 5

What country was particularly influenced by Byzantine civilization?

A) Italy
B) The Middle East
C) Russia
D) Poland

Question 6

Which of the following does NOT represent a similarity between the spread of civilization in eastern and western Europe?

A) Civilization spread northward from a Mediterranean base.
B) Animism gave way to monotheism.
C) Northern political units rapidly dominated the political sophistication of civilization areas in Asia and north Africa.
D) In both cases newly civilized areas looked back to the Greco-Roman past.

Question 7

Which of the following represents a difference between the spread of civilization in eastern and western Europe?

A) They produced different versions of Christianity, culturally as well as organizationally separate.
B) Only eastern Europe developed north-south commercial ties.
C) Centralized government and well-organized bureaucracy was more a feature of western Europe than eastern Europe.
D) Eastern Europe retained less fully the culture of the later Roman Empire than did the West.

Question 8

Where did the Romans establish an eastern capital in the 4th century CE?

A) Rome
B) Nicaea
C) Constantinople
D) Baghdad

Question 9

The emperor responsible for the initial construction of Constantinople was

A) Constantine.
B) Justinian.
C) Diocletian.
D) Heraklius.

Question 10

What was the difference in the military organization of Byzantine and western Roman empires?

A) The western Roman Empire depended on citizen soldiers until the 5th century.
B) The Byzantine Empire recruited men from the Middle East.
C) The Byzantine Empire recruited barbarians almost exclusively while the Roman Empire of the West depended on Islamic mercenaries.
D) The Byzantine Empire depended on the strength of Constantinople?s walls and did not recruit an army.

Question 11

What was the great church built in Constantinople by Justinian?

A) St. Peter?s
B) The Cathedral of St. Dimitri
C) Hagia Sophia
D) Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Question 12

Starting after the reign of Justinian, what was the official language of the eastern empire?

A) Latin
B) Persian
C) Arabic
D) Greek

Question 13

The Byzantine Empire began

A) in the 9th century C.E., with the missionary work of Cyril and Methodius.
B) in the 4th century C.E., with the establishment of Constantinople as the eastern capital of the empire.
C) in the 1st century C.E., during the reign of Augustus.
D) in the 5th century C.E., with the fall of Rome.

Question 14

Who was the brilliant general who helped Justinian achieve military gains in north Africa and Italy?

A) Belisarius
B) Theodorus
C) Procopius
D) Basil

Question 15

The name normally given to the form of Christianity that emerged in the Byzantine Empire was

A) Roman Catholicism.
B) Nestorianism.
C) Orthodox Christianity.
D) Solafideanism.

Question 16

What Eastern emperor was responsible for the attempted restoration of a united Roman Empire after 533?

A) Constantine
B) Justinian
C) Diocletian
D) Theodosius

Question 17

Which of the following was NOT one of Justinian?s positive contributions to the Byzantine Empire?

A) The rebuilding of Constantinople
B) Systematizing of the Roman legal code
C) The reconquest of Gaul
D) The construction of Hagia Sophia

Question 18

The former courtesan who was Justinian?s wife and advisor was

A) Sophia.
B) Syria.
C) Zoe.
D) Theodora.

Question 19

The Slavic kingdom that particularly pressed Byzantine territory in the Balkans after the 8th century C.E. was

A) Russia.
B) Hungary.
C) Anatolia.
D) Bulgaria.

Question 20

All of the following were outcomes of Justinian?s wars of reconquest EXCEPT

A) the permanent addition of Italy to the Byzantine Empire.
B) increased tax pressures on the government.
C) military successes in north Africa and Italy.
D) weakening of the empire?s defenses on its eastern frontiers.

Question 21

After the 7th century, what group posed the greatest threat to the eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire?

A) The Sassanid Persians
B) The Germans
C) The Huns
D) The Arab Muslims

Question 22

What was the technological innovation that aided the Byzantine Empire in withstanding the Muslim siege of Constantinople in 717?

A) Cannon
B) Greek fire
C) Gunpowder rockets
D) Catapults

Question 23

Which of the following was a result of the conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Muslims?

A) The Arab threat to the Byzantine Empire was permanently removed.
B) The position of small farmers in the empire was weakened as a result of heavy taxation, resulting in greater aristocratic estates.
C) The Byzantine Empire was able to recover the provinces of Syria and Egypt, thus regaining valuable agricultural land and increased wealth.
D) The commercial significance of Constantinople was destroyed by the 8th century, forcing the Byzantine Empire to depend increasingly on trade with the West.

Question 24

Which of the following conclusions that might be drawn about the Byzantine Empire as the result of its conflicts with its neighbors is most true?

A) Despite all of its difficulties, its wars with its neighbors demonstrates that the empire had real core strength.
B) The outcome of the wars demonstrates that by the 10th century the empire was completely decadent and incapable of defending itself.
C) The wars with Islamic powers demonstrate the inherent weakness of the Byzantine military.
D) The role of Theodora and other women in the wars demonstrate that the intrusion of women into Byzantine politics was highly destructive.

Question 25

Byzantine cultural life centered on the secular traditions of

A) Islam.
B) Confucianism.
C) ancient Egypt.
D) Hellenism.

Question 26

What emperor became renowned in the 11th century as the slayer of the Bulgarians by defeating the Bulgarian kingdom and restoring Byzantine rule in the Balkans?

A) Justinian
B) Anastasius
C) Basil II
D) Michael III

Question 27

In which of the following ways were the Byzantine bureaucracy and the Chinese bureaucracy similar?

A) there was an extensive state exam system in both
B) emperors played little role in either government
C) there was no linkage of the bureaucracies to local administration
D) both bureaucracies were open to talented commoners, not just aristocrats

Question 28

Which of the following statements concerning the Byzantine bureaucracy is NOT accurate?

A) Many of the officials closest to the emperor were eunuchs.
B) Aristocrats predominated, but there was some openness to talent.
C) An elaborate system of spies maintained loyalty to the central government.
D) Bureaucrats were trained to be literate, but lacked the formal training in Greek classics and philosophy.

Question 29

Which of the following statements concerning Byzantine military organization is most accurate?

A) Byzantine soldiers were recruited almost exclusively from peoples outside the empire.
B) The Byzantine Empire emulated the later Arabic empires by making use of slave armies as a basis for the military force.
C) The Byzantine Empire recruited troops within the empire by granting heritable land in return for military service.
D) Military command within the Byzantine Empire remained in the hands of the traditional aristocracy who lived in Constantinople.

Question 30

Which of the following statements concerning urbanization within the Byzantine Empire is most correct?

A) Constantinople controlled the economy and grew to enormous size, but other cities were relatively small.
B) Constantinople began to decline in population in the later years of the Byzantine Empire and was surpassed by the growth of other urban centers.
C) Like China, the Byzantine Empire was heavily urbanized with many cities numbering more than 100,000.
D) Most people in the Byzantine Empire lived in five great cities: Constantinople, Nicaea, Smyrna, Rome, and Athens.

Question 31

What were the primary exports of the Byzantine Empire?

A) Food products
B) Raw materials, such as metal ores from Asia Minor
C) Luxury products such as silk, cloth, and carpets
D) The empire produced little of significance and was almost exclusively an importer of goods

Question 32

Which of the following statements concerning the merchant class of the Byzantine Empire is most accurate?

A) Because of its lack of export products, Byzantine commerce was controlled completely by foreign merchants.
B) Byzantine merchants, because of their wealth, rapidly became the most powerful force in the government of Constantinople and the empire.
C) The Byzantine merchant class never recovered from the loss of territories to the Muslims and was not a significant factor within the empire.
D) There was a large and wealthy merchant class in the Byzantine Empire, but it never gained significant political power because of the power of the bureaucracy.

Question 33

Which of the following was NOT a strength of Byzantine cultural life?

A) Domed buildings adapted from the Roman style of architecture
B) Richly colored mosaics
C) Innovative literary forms
D) Painted icons

Question 34

What was the result of the conflict over the use of religious images in the Orthodox church?

A) Like the Muslims, the Orthodox church banned subsequent use of religious images in favor of non-representational art.
B) Because of the popular reaction in favor of icons, the Orthodox church restored their use; but the close relationship between church and state was broken.
C) After a long and complex battle, icon use was gradually restored, while the tradition of state control over church affairs was also reasserted.
D) Because of the strong resistance of the monks, icon use was restricted to those regions of the empire where the monasteries had little influence.

Question 35

Which of the following issues was a cause for the split between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches after 1054?

A) The Orthodox church?s lack of bishops
B) The insistence of the patriarch of Constantinople on supremacy within church councils
C) The absence of monasticism in Roman Catholicism
D) The Roman Catholic practice of requiring celibacy for its priests

Question 36

In the 11th century, what group of people seized most of the Asiatic provinces of the Byzantine Empire?

A) The Huns
B) The Mongols
C) The Ottoman Turks
D) The Seljuk Turks

Question 37

What was the outcome of the Western Crusade of 1204?

A) The crusaders succeeded in temporarily pushing back the Turks and restoring the Asiatic provinces of the Byzantine Empire.
B) The Crusade succeeded in establishing a Western kingdom in the Holy Land, but failed to relieve the Asiatic provinces of the Byzantine Empire.
C) The crusaders attacked and conquered Constantinople, temporarily establishing a Western kingdom there.
D) The Crusade resulted in the establishment of a Western kingdom of Bulgaria in the Balkans.

Question 38

In what year did the Turks successfully capture Constantinople?

A) 1071
B) 1326
C) 1453
D) 1501

Question 39

What two missionaries were responsible for the creation of a written script for Slavic language?

A) Basil and John Chrysostom
B) Cyril and Methodius
C) Constans and Mnemosyne
D) John and Matthew

Question 40

The Slavic alphabet created by Orthodox missionaries to the Slavs is called

A) cursive.
B) Constantinapolitan.
C) Cyrillic.
D) Russo-Slavic.

Question 41

Which of the following countries was converted to Orthodox Christianity?

A) Poland
B) Russia
C) Hungary
D) Czechoslovakia

Question 42

The kingdom of Kiev in southern Russia was established by traders from what region?

A) Scandinavia
B) Czechoslovakia
C) The Balkans
D) The Byzantine Empire

Question 43

The first king of Kievan Russia was

A) Yarolav.
B) Vladimir I.
C) Boris Gudonov.
D) Rurik.

Question 44

Why did Vladimir I prefer Orthodox Christianity to Roman Catholicism?

A) He preferred to avoid the pitfalls of the veneration of icons.
B) He believed that Roman Catholicism implied papal interference, while Orthodoxy embraced the control of the church by the state.
C) He was not familiar with Roman Catholicism, because the Western form of Christianity had not penetrated into eastern Europe.
D) He did not believe in clerical celibacy which was required of the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Question 45

Which of the following practices was NOT adopted as a feature of the Russian Orthodox Church?

A) Veneration of icons
B) An active monastic movement
C) Clerical celibacy
D) Emphasis on almsgiving

Question 46

Which of the Kievan princes issued a formal legal code?

A) Rurik
B) Yaroslav
C) Vladimir
D) Boris

Question 47

What was the extent of western European influence in Kievan Russia?

A) Despite the adoption of Orthodox Christianity, most of the ecclesiastical influences were Roman Catholic.
B) There was direct Western influence in Russia in both music and art forms.
C) Like western Europe, Russia also moved away from the popular veneration of icons and representational images.
D) Russia?s religious culture and social and economic patterns developed separately from western Europe?s.

Question 48

What group of peoples were responsible for the conquest of Kievan Russia in 1237 -1238?

A) Huns
B) Mongols
C) Ottoman Turks
D) Seljuk Turks

Question 49

Which of the following statements concerning the Tatar invasion of Russia is most accurate?

A) Tatar control of Russia lasted for four decades.
B) The Tatars used Russia as a springboard for their successful invasion of western Europe.
C) Tatar supervision did not destroy Russian Christianity or a native Russian aristocracy.
D) The Tatars rapidly devised a closely supervised local administration for the Russian cities.

Question 50

What was the name of the paintings of saints and other religious figures found in the Byzantium Empire?

A) Trinity paintings
B) Christian paintings
C) Filioque paintings
D) Icon paintings

Question 51

Compare and contrast the spread of European civilization in eastern and western Europe.

Question 52

What was the political organization of the Byzantine Empire?

Question 53

What were the factors in the decline of the Byzantine Empire?

Question 54

In what ways was the culture of Kievan Russia an extension of the Byzantine Empire?